Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities,
undeterred by protests
[June 16, 2025]
By AAMER MADHANI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal
immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run
cities, a move that comes after large protests erupted in Los Angeles
and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration
policies.
Trump in a social media posting called on U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very
important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program
in History.”
He added that to reach the goal officials ”must expand efforts to detain
and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los
Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal
Aliens reside.”
Trump's declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and
after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main
architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said ICE officers would
target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the
first five months of Trump’s second term.
At the same time, the Trump administration has directed immigration
officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, after Trump
expressed alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on
those industries, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter
who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Protests over federal immigration enforcement raids have been flaring up
around the country.
Opponents of Trump's immigration policies took to the streets as part of
the “no kings” demonstrations Saturday that came as Trump held a massive
parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.
Saturday's protests were mostly peaceful.
But police in Los Angeles used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to
clear out protesters after the event ended.
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President Donald Trump, left, escorted by Air Force Col. Angela F.
Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift Wing, walks from Marine One to board
Air Force One, Sunday, June 15, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md.,
for a trip to Canada to attend the G7 Summit. (AP Photo/Mark
Schiefelbein)
Officers in Portland, Oregon, also fired tear gas and projectiles to
disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement building well into the evening.
Trump made the call for stepped up enforcement in
Democratic-controlled cities on social media as he was making his
way to the Group of Seven economic summit in Alberta, Canada.
He suggested to reporters as he departed the White House for the G7
on Sunday evening that his decision to deploy National Guard troops
to Los Angeles was the reason the protests in that city went
peacefully.
“If we didn’t have the National Guard on call and ready, they would
rip Los Angeles apart,” Trump said.
The shift also come as Trump is grappling with the impact his mass
deportation effort is having on key industries that rely on workers
in the country illegally.
Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that he heard from
hotel, agriculture and leisure industries that his “very aggressive
policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away
from them” and promised that changes would be made .
That same day Tatum King, an official with ICE’s Homeland Security
Investigations unit, wrote to regional leaders telling them to halt
investigations of the agriculture industry, including meatpackers,
as well as of restaurants and hotels, according to the U.S.
official.
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